Electricity that is used on a regular basis—day-to-day, and month-to-month by homeowners, businesses and factories—is typically provided by utility companies and delivered through a grid system. From experience, these utility companies determine how much electricity they need to provide at various times of the day and night in order to supply the needs of each area or zone of customers without experiencing outages. This can be referred to as providing base load or primary power.
From time to time the amount of electric power that is required/demanded changes based on unusual conditions. As an example, during periods of hot summer weather air conditioners run frequently. This can result in power being required over and above the base load. This extra power can be referred to as peaking power or secondary power and can be supplied by the utility company using temporary generating means such as engine/generator sets, which are well suited for quick response back up power.
About 70% of the world's base load electricity power generation (primary power) is produced by steam turbines that are powered by burning coal or by nuclear energy. Steam turbines have relatively few moving parts and fairly long life cycles. However, typical coal fired power plants operate at only 30 to 35% efficiency when comparing the energy value of the coal to the kilowatt hours generated and nuclear power plants have a wide range of hazards and complexities associated with them. Various types of engines have therefore been used to drive generators in an effort to provide options to coal and nuclear power generation. Engines, however, have many moving components and typically run at high speeds of several thousand RPMs. If used continuously for extended periods as would be required to provide base load power, engines tend to wear out quickly, have comparatively short life cycles and are expensive to maintain and replace. Thus, while engine/generator sets work well in providing emergency backup power in residential and commercial applications, they are generally not economical for providing base load power in place of grid power because of the high cost of operation, maintenance and or/replacement.
Just as coal fired power generation is highly inefficient, internal combustion engines are also highly inefficient. It is well known that about one-third of the fuel energy powering internal combustion engines goes out the exhaust pipe as lost heat and another one-third or so is lost to the cooling system. A good well designed four cycle engine achieves only about 28% thermal efficiency.
During the last 120 years or so, there have been many efforts expended to introduce water and/or steam into the workings of the internal combustion engine for the purpose of trying to improve engine performance.
For example, some engines have utilized water injections into the air/fuel intake or directly into the combustion chambers in order to cool the combustion chambers and prevent pre-detonation. Octane ratings of the fuel can be effectively increased in this manner and depending on various criteria; engine power and/or efficiency may be improved.
Other engines have been modified to accept injections of hot water directly into the combustion chamber. This can occur along with the air/fuel mixture on the power stroke or in place of some or all of the fuel that would normally be used. When the water flashes into steam, it produces an explosive effect to push the pistons. The power produced by the steam depends on several factors such as the amount of water and fuel being used, the temperature of the engine and the water, the pressure of the water and the timing of the injections. Properly done, this is a process that could improve engine performance.
Still other engines utilize some of the waste heat produced by the internal combustion process to produce steam, which is then injected into the combustion chamber to increase pressure or it is applied directly to the crankshaft area to increase torque.
Many combinations of heat, pressure, water and steam have been tried over the years in conjunction with internal combustion engines, but none has emerged with the characteristics that are necessary to produce a commercially viable internal combustion steam engine that can be used for powering generators for base load electricity requirements.
Consequently, a need has been felt to provide such an engine, which exhibits a high efficiency, long life cycle, ease of maintenance, low emissions and low to moderate engine cost. A need has also been felt to provide such an engine in different sizes, so as to serve the needs of individual homes, small, medium and large businesses as well as power plants.